I knew that intellectually before, but now I really know it. Having finally self-published my book, I now understand all the time and effort that goes into it. You have to sell a lot of copies to recoup the cost. And how do you sell those copies? By spending even more money to promote the book. And time. Lots and lots of time. It’s definitely deepened my respect for small publishers.

Small bookstores are struggling too. I miss A Woman’s Place bookstore in Salt Lake City and Red and Black Books in Seattle. A Woman’s place hosted my first reading, and Red and Black Books hosted a reading AND introduced me to Octavia Butler, an author I would not have found on my own. I remember that when I went in to give the reading, I saw a paperback book of hers sitting on a spinner, looking shiny and new and fun.

The small bookstores that survive, like Ravenna Third Place Books near my home, have to sell both used and new books because the profit margins on new books are so small. Third Place also had to add a restaurant and pub. Don’t get me wrong: I love going to the restaurant and pub. I’m just saying that’s what it takes to break even as an independent bookstore.

Enter the writers struggling to break into publishing. We don’t just have to write excellent and desirable books; we also have to convince a publisher that they won’t be taking a loss by putting out our books. We must also somehow convince a publisher we’re worth the risk. That’s the part I didn’t understand all the time I kept trying (and failing) to sell my book to a publisher.

What’s a writer to do?

You don’t need me to answer that question. Everybody and their dog is going to answer that question for you: there’s that one story about the guy who made a million bucks selling books out of the back of his car. (Of course, that’s not going to be the reality for most writers, but never mind that.)

Let me ask a different question:

What can writers do in order to make the publishing and bookselling world more hospitable to authors? I’m talking big picture, can we forget about our piece of pie for a second and find out how to make that pie bigger for everybody?

Yes indeed! We need to band together and support the small presses and independent bookstores we eventually hope will support us. So without further ado, here are a couple publishers and independent bookstores that make my five-star list.

Here is the concept art that ultimately didn’t make it onto my book cover. They were all fun to make, but none of them had the right personality. (One day, though, I hope to write a story that will live up to the flamingo cover.)

I learned a lot along the process. First, don’t use copyrighted works even for private concept art, because you might fall in love with something you can’t ultimately use. Second, it’s not easy, but you can search wikimedia commons for art that falls under “CC-BY-3.0” a common license that can be used for book covers. Third, there are a lot of stock photography sites that charge a small fee for the kind of print runs an indy author would have. Fourth, it’s way easier to have a graphic designer do your cover than to do it yourself. Fifth, I learned how to use the free image manipulation program GIMP. WIN!

Here is some more detailed information about the art in this picture. I did my best, but if this is your art and I’ve attributed it incorrectly please let me know.